scholarly journals Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Matt Carlson ◽  
Sue Robinson ◽  
Seth C. Lewis

This introductory chapter begins by calling for a decentering of journalism in favor of a broader view of the complex political communication environment that has accompanied the proliferation of digital media channels. In this environment, journalism is engaged with other social actors in a struggle for the right to provide truthful accounts. At issue is the very relevance of journalism as an epistemic authority. These shifts in the media culture are not a passing moment but rather a confluence of enduring factors that need to be confronted. This informational context can be understood by examining how anti-institutional movements, such as populism, rely on denigrating journalism. This chapter argues that journalism theory and practice benefit from this broader contextual view. It ends by providing an outline of the book.

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Boda ◽  
Gabriella Szabó ◽  
Attila Bartha ◽  
Gergő Medve-Bálint ◽  
Zsuzsanna Vidra

Penal populism, advocating severe punishment of criminals, has greatly influenced justice policy measures in Eastern Europe over the last decade. This article takes Hungary as a typical case in the region and based on a recent criminal policy reform it investigates the roots of the penal populist discourse, which legitimizes and supports punitive measures. The research assumes that policy discourses need specific social actors that construct and promote them. Accordingly, the article explores whether the right-wing political parties and the tabloid media have taken a leading role in constructing the discourse of penal populism as a response to public concerns about crime. Content analysis and frame analysis of political communication and media was conducted to identify the discursive positions of major political parties and selected national media sources. The research found that penal populism was dominant in Hungarian political discourse while most of the media, including the tabloid press, have been rather reluctant to adopt punitive tones. The results thus contradict previous findings and offer a more nuanced view on how penal populism is being constructed and promoted in Eastern Europe.


Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts

This chapter presents the book’s macrolevel findings about the architecture of political communication and the news media ecosystem in the United States from 2015 to 2018. Two million stories published during the 2016 presidential election campaign are analyzed, along with another 1.9 million stories about Donald Trump’s presidency during his first year. The chapter examines patterns of interlinking between online media sources to understand the relations of authority and credibility among publishers, as well as the media sharing practices of Twitter and Facebook users to elucidate social media attention patterns. The data and mapping reveal not only a profoundly polarized media landscape but stark asymmetry: the right is more insular, skewed towards the extreme, and set apart from the more integrated media ecosystem of the center, center-left, and left.


2019 ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Francis L. F. Lee

This chapter reviews the relationship between the media and the Umbrella Movement. The mainstream media, aided by digital media outlets and platforms, play the important role of the public monitor in times of major social conflicts, even though the Hong Kong media do so in an environment where partial censorship exists. The impact of digital media in largescale protest movements is similarly multifaceted and contradictory. Digital media empower social protests by promoting oppositional discourses, facilitating mobilization, and contributing to the emergence of connective action. However, they also introduce and exacerbate forces of decentralization that present challenges to movement leaders. Meanwhile, during and after the Umbrella Movement, one can also see how the state has become more proactive in online political communication, thus trying to undermine the oppositional character of the Internet in Hong Kong.


2015 ◽  
pp. 1737-1762
Author(s):  
John Ubena

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the legal framework for access to information particularly information held by government in Tanzania. The analysis intends to establish whether the existing Right To Information (RTI) legal framework and ICT development in Tanzania facilitates universal and requisite access to government information. In order to do that, the chapter utilises a literature review to understand contemporary trends in both theory and practice. In addition, journal articles, books, reports, case law, and pieces of legislation focusing on RTI are visited to obtain deeper insights in the topic under scrutiny. The findings indicate that, despite Tanzania's efforts to embrace democracy virtues, good governance, and technology, the country lacks adequate legal framework to facilitate universal access to government information and ensure that the Right To Information (RTI) is observed in all the socio-economic contexts. To rectify this problem, there is need to enact the RTI law with clear focus of encouraging access to government information. Although two bills (the Media Service Bill [MSB] and the 2011 RTI) are currently being debated, it is not clear yet when they will become law and subsequently practiced.


Author(s):  
Laura Dauben ◽  
Katharina S. Weber ◽  
Lisa Nießen ◽  
Marlo Verket ◽  
Olaf Spörkel ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Children with migration background and from low socio-economic status are at higher risk for overweight. To determine appropriate media channels to possibly reach children with targeted health information, it has to be considered that the media and information behavior of children has changed during the last decades. Objective We examined the media and information behavior of children in low socio-economic districts, focusing on those with migration background. Methods Fourteen 3rd grade classes (n=250 children, 68.0% with migration background) completed a questionnaire regarding their media consumption, which was based on existing validated surveys. Results ≥ 50% of the children watched TV and around 40% used both mobile phones and computers/tablets/internet for ≥1 h/day. Books were the most popular analogue media (61.6% of children), whereas magazines/newspapers and radio (18.4 and 16.0% of children, respectively) were used less frequently. Furthermore, they regularly used internet, TV and their teachers (63.0, 48.8 and 44.8% of children, respectively) as information source. Especially children with compared to those without migration background less likely used the radio (P=0.0002) and their family as information source (P=0.0017). Conclusions Children attending 3rd grade class, especially with migration background, can be addressed through digital media rather than the radio. This may help to sustainably support children outside school with targeted health information.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511988532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Schroeder

Since Brexit and the election of President Donald Trump, news media around the world have given extensive coverage to the issue of disinformation and polarization. This article argues that while the negative effects of social media have dominated the discussion, these effects do not address how right-wing populists have been able to successfully and legitimately use digital media to circumvent traditional media. The article uses the United States and Sweden as case studies about how digital media have helped to achieve electoral success and shift the political direction in both countries—though in quite different ways. It also argues that the sources of right-wing populism go beyond the hitherto dominant left–right political divide, capturing anti-elite sentiment, and promoting exclusionary nationalism. The dominance of the issue of media manipulation has obscured the shift whereby the relation between the media and politics has become more fluid and antagonistic, which fits the populist agenda. This shift requires a rethinking of political communication that includes both the social forces that give rise to populism and the alternative digital channels that entrench them, with implications for the prospects of the role of media in politics in the two countries and beyond.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
GEDE KAMAJAYA

BSTRACTThe 2019 election is the first simultaneous election in Indonesia. In addition to electing the presidentand vice president, the 2019 election also elects members of the DPR RI, DPD, Provincial DPR, andCity Regency DPRD. The 2019 simultaneous elections were implemented after previously there was alawsuit against Law No. 42 of 2008. One of the most important things in a democratic climate is publicparticipation in the policy-making process and political process. One form of public participation inthe policy-making process and political process is the involvement of citizens in the election process.This study aims to determine the extent of the participation of the Buleleng people in the 2019simultaneous elections. To obtain the results to be achieved as mentioned above, this study uses aqualitative method by collecting data from interviews to document studies. The results of this studyindicate that the number of users of the right to vote in Buleleng Regency is 439,787 people. Inpercentage terms, public participation in simultaneous elections in Buleleng Regency is 73.91%. In the2019 simultaneous elections, there were 596,589 voters in Buleleng. Meanwhile, the number of votingrights users reached 439,787 people who were divided into 2,146 polling stations. The highparticipation rate is due to the success of KPU socialization, massive information in the media. Of allthe regencies in Bali, Buleleng was recorded as one of the districts with a fairly high invalid vote rateof 37,449 while the number of valid votes was 401,818. The high number of invalid votes is due totechnical difficulties, especially for the elderly. In Buleleng Regency itself, the elderly voter rate is thehighest compared to other districts and cities with a total of 92,101 with the number of male voters is42,170 and the number of female voters is 49,931. Keywords: Buleleng Regency, Public Participation, Election, Political Communication


2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482091041
Author(s):  
Maria Rae

Online media sites such as Breitbart News in the United States and The Canary in the United Kingdom have come to prominence as powerful new agents. Their reach and influence in the contemporary digital media ecology have been widely highlighted, yet there has been little scholarship to situate these important new players in the field of political communication. This article argues that, first, these ‘interlopers’ known as the ‘alt-right’ and ‘alt-left’ need to be understood as embedded in the context of populist politics. Second, ‘hyperpartisan’ describes these sites better than the framework of alternative media as it mirrors populism’s ideological pillar of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Finally, a deliberate provocation is argued to name these digital start-ups as news to create a starting point for conceptualising these disruptive new media forces.


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